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The article stated that an analysis of the RCGP annual accounts from 2010 to 2014 ‘reveals’ that the college has ‘earned on average £2.1m a year from exams’ after direct costs are taken into account.

It went on to say that there were concerns that ‘trainees were being made to fund the college’s activities’.

Understandably, many trainees felt upset, and indeed distressed, by the content of this article, with a number troubled by the idea that the college was making money out of them.

However the article, which was based on a superficial reading of the college’s statutory accounts, was erroneous, and therefore misleading.

The full costs of the exam and supporting our trainees through the exam process do not make a profit. They are actually cost neutral.

In fact, if you look at the period 2010 to 2015 – to include the latest year for which figures are available – the college sustained a deficit on the exam process.

The simple fact is that due to the way statutory accounts are required to be broken down in order to meet accounting standards, many of the costs associated with the exam, such as the full cost of the exam centre and the paperless exam, and of reviewing and developing the curriculum, are not included in the ‘exam’ expenditure, but are included elsewhere.

In addition, the ‘exam’ expenditure does not include the costs we spend on supporting trainees, for instance the hard copy and online materials we produce in order to guide, assist and encourage them through their training journey to the MRCGP licensing examination, or the work we do with LETBs/Deaneries to enhance the assistance in place for trainees.

We have also recently invested in devising improved formative performance feedback on the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) and extending time allowed for the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), both of which will be of significant benefit to candidates, and in particular those who do not pass at the first attempt.

If all of the costs associated with the exam were to be taken into account then during 2010 to 2014 the college made a very small surplus of £527,000 – which was then ploughed back into the exam process.

If we include 2014/15, the college actually sustained a deficit of £761,000.

The truth of the matter is that the college constantly keeps the costs of the exam and the support we provide to trainees under review.

This is because we know that training to become a GP is an expensive and stressful process, and – being the medical royal college for general practitioners – we naturally want to support the next generation of family doctors as much as we can.

At the start of each year, we set a budget for the exam process that is cost neutral and, as one would expect, given the import of the exam, both to trainees and the patient population, do so in a way that is prudent.

Our guiding principle is that while we want to run an exam process that is cost neutral we also want to ensure that there is enough money available to allow the college to run the exam efficiently, give our trainees sufficient support, and manage unforeseen costs or eventualities.

As there is inevitably a great deal of variability around exactly how many trainees take the exam each year, and how many will need to resit, it is impossible to produce a budgetary result, at the end of each financial year, that is exactly a break even one, to the nearest penny.

It is inevitable that in some years we will make a small surplus and, in others, a deficit.

In 2014/15, the exam process made a loss of £1.3m.

This year, we are projecting that the exam process will make a further loss.

However, this is a situation that we would occasionally expect to happen, as our primary objective is always to put as much resource into backing our trainees as possible.

We regularly meet with trainee member representatives from within the college, and also with external bodies that both represent trainees in general, and those who are struggling, in order to ensure we constantly take on board the trainee perspective and address or contribute to addressing key issues.

Our trainees are the UK’s next generation of family doctors and they deserve to be supported by the college through and up to the point at which they take the exam.

Providing support to our trainees is critical, and this is something that we will always see as a priority.

Readers' comments (4)

While I am never a member of the college , I can only look at this saga from a 'third' person point of view . Reading the comments on the main article above , the level of scepticism and refusal to believe ,even after this latest report from the college , is phenomenal . To me , it just raises the question of lack of trust and credibility from the members to the college. As I said on another comment , the biggest pitfall is that virtually all established institutions or organisations , with time , fail to keep up with the feelings and ideologies of their members (especially the new generations ), losing sight of their expectations on the institution . While RCGP has now the monopoly of certifying any new GP before they can work in this country , it needs to be more humble and understanding of all the voices and feedbacks from the profession. Transparency has become even more 'transparent' in this era with free access of informations at all fronts . Yes, it becomes a pain in the backside to some of us creating controversies and debates .Just like Thomas Jefferson once said about newspaper : if you ask me to choose between a government with no newspaper(Internet ) and no government with newspaper(Internet) , I have no hesitation to choose the latter.Bottom line is members are funding the college with a substantial membership fee every year , they derseve a bit more as far as help , support and transparency , etc.From that you get your trust and credibility .After all, we are no politicians , there is a code .Time for soul searching ?

Surely if exams are running at a loss of a million pounds inspite of charging £1500 + for each sitting; something must be really wrong with the RCGP. If this is true then it clearly isn't a competent organisation...or the RCGP may well be lying, in which case it doesn't deserve my trust either!!! doesn't the RCGP provide detailed expenses associated with running the exam?

train junior doctors who want to be GPs into competent relevant next generation GPs and administer a fair exam but they actually

1. administer an unfair and expensive exam2. stick their nose in politics and manage to annoy everyone3. anchor those that pass the exams to themselves unfairly and use the membership as cover to carry out their activities4. form cosy relationships with enemy organisations

in short if they can't do a simple task as running a fair cost-effective exam they should go. i'd rather have RCP takeover.